Washington, January 31 (RHC)-- U.S. President Donald Trump has revoked a 2009 order in which President Barack Obama promised to close the prison at the illegally occupied Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba.

Trump made the announcement Tuesday during his first State of the Union address since his election.

"I am keeping another promise.  I just signed, prior to walking out, an order directing Secretary Mattis, to reexamine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities in Guantánamo Bay," he said

Sixteen years after the first prisoner arrived, 41 detainees remain at the detention center. Of some 800 prisoners who have been held there since 2002, only a handful have been charged with a crime and even fewer tried.

The order asks Secretary of Defense James Mattis to present the White House within the next three months with recommendations on policies “governing the transfer of individuals” captured in armed conflicts, including policies governing transfer of individuals to Guantánamo Bay.

Since its opening in 2002 the detention center has been the target of criticism by international organizations and human rights activists due to its well documented torture practices against prisoners, and its violation of international humsn rights laws.

The New York Center for Constitutional Rights, a leading legal organization representing Guantánamo detainees in U.S. federal courts, issued a statement declaring the decision “unsurprising given Trump’s deep-seated racism, his well-documented antipathy toward all Muslims, and his endless puffing and posturing.”